Fluctuations in the Timeline
by Nanenna
Summary: A place to collect one shots and what ifs related to The Things You Haven't Told Me and the WDG 102 series.
1. Meeting the (Grand)Parents

If you haven't read TTYHTM (and why are you here if you haven't?) then be warned: this series is dark. And while none of these things are shown happening, the following are confirmed or suspected to have happened and the characters discuss them: unethical experimentation, child abuse, underage sex, age/power difference, rape/non-con, and teen pregnancy (of the Mpreg variety). **Reader discretion is advised.**

This particular chapter is something that I had considered putting into TTYHTM but ultimately left out. It could easily fit into chapter 7 if you squeeze it in after Papyrus goes back to visit Sans but before Undyne shows up. Also since it's not dealing with multiple AUs I'm using the canon names rather than the AU nicknames.

* * *

Papyrus reclined in the uncomfortable hospital chair, angled so he could keep watch over Sans's unresponsive form under the scratchy hospital blankets. Not that he was looking at him at the moment, Sans hadn't so much as twitched since he'd been admitted. Instead Papyrus was staring down at a messy, old, faded form. It was similar to the forms he'd had to fill out to get Sans into the hospital: patient's name, family, birth date, medical history… only instead of "patient" every line called for information about the "test subject." It still filled Papyrus with too many emotions to name, all swirling together in an ugly whirlpool in his rib cage. Instead he focused on one of a few lines that had been added onto the bottom by hand, specifically the line about the "test subject's" family.

There, sitting right in front of him, practically glaring up at him, were the names and address of Sans's parents and siblings. Papyrus's grandparents, no matter how he shied away from calling them that. Part of him was so angry at them for letting Sans get into the situation he'd been in, angry at them for all the anger Sans had spit when Papyrus had been young and asked where their parents were, angry enough that he wanted nothing to do with them. But another part was sure they would have some answers for him. For their names to be on the form at all whoever had done this to Sans had known who and where they were. No other test subjects had that information on their forms, none that Papyrus had looked at anyway. And it's not like he can ask Sans his questions.

Papyrus glanced up, face softening to see his brother... mother... closest relative. His closest relative still alive, still taking short, shallow breaths, face still lax and looking far younger than he had any right to. Then he looked back down at the paper and he just wanted to find those two bitches, demand to know what the hell was wrong with them, shake then until their teeth rattled. A tempting thought, but pointless. There was nothing in the baby book about them at all and no mentions of them in Sans's files after the one incident, there was a good possibility they didn't even know Papyrus existed.

Now there was a thought. Papyrus didn't have to tell them a thing about himself, he was just someone investigating the past of an injured monster. Hell, he was a Royal Guardsman, he could just put on his uniform and ask any questions he wanted and tell them nothing at all.

Papyrus smirked as he pulled off his glasses, rubbed at his tired orbits, then carefully tucked the form back into its file and put it away in his inventory. The smirk was still on his face as he slowly stood and tiptoed quietly out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.

It took Papyrus far longer than he would have liked to actually put his plan into motion. First he had to go all the way from New Home to Snowdin, his uniform was at home after all, then all the way back across the Underground to the address on the form, in New Home. It had turned out that the address, being older than Papyrus himself, was outdated and his (he shuddered to think the term every time, but it was the most accurate) grandparents no longer lived there. It had taken even longer to track down their new address, going so far as to go to the Royal Guard hall of records and miraculously finding the address there. It turned out one of his _grandparents_ used to work for the crown… somehow or other.

Now he was standing before the door, hand raised to knock but hesitating as he quickly ran through the plan he had formulated on his way over. Satisfied, he firmly knocked. A skeleton answered, one that was nearly a full head taller and a little thinner than Sans but still looked so much like him that it caused Papyrus's soul to squeeze painfully.

"ARE YOU TIMES NEW ROMAN OR GABRIOLA?"

"No, but you're at the right house, those are my parents."

"ARE EITHER OF THEM HOME? I NEED TO SPEAK WITH THEM."

"Sure, just a minute." The unknown skeleton, one of his auncles he supposes, shut the door. Papyrus stood there, impatiently tapping his foot and fighting the urge to cross his arms. Then another skeleton, this one a bit shorter than his auncle with big, round orbits and a grin more like Papyrus's than Sans's, opened the door.

"Hello, I'm Gabriola, Segoe said you wanted to speak to me?"

"YES, I HAD SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR OLDEST CHILD AND WAS HOPING TO SPEAK TO BOTH YOU AND TIMES NEW ROMAN ABOUT HIM."

"Has something happened to Delia? Is she okay?"

Papyrus paused to take a deep breath. "I WAS TALKING ABOUT SIMONCINI GARAMOND, **YOUR OLDEST CHILD**." He leaned heavily on those last three words, trying to keep his irritation out of his voice.

"Oh… yes… well… Roman is home. Just uh… will this take a while?"

"I'M NOT SURE, THAT LARGELY DEPENDS ON YOUR ANSWERS." He watched Gabriola hesitate, then sighed. "YOU'RE NOT IN TROUBLE, I JUST HAVE SOME QUESTIONS." And officially they weren't in trouble. Papyrus may be in his uniform but this was an entirely unofficial visit. He could have talked to Undyne about it, she had been leaning on him about investigating all this, but that just didn't sit well with him. Sans had kept it all secret, even going behind his back like this felt wrong. Too bad Papyrus had never been the patient type.

"I suppose you should come in, then." Gabriola sighed and looked so defeated as she stepped back to allow Papyrus in. She showed him to a tasteful maroon armchair before leaving the room. Papyrus heard voices canted just barely too low to make out the words arguing in the next room, followed by Segoe casting him a disgruntled glare on their way out the front door.

After the echoes of the front door slamming faded Gabriola returned with another skeleton, presumably Times New Roman herself. Her eyes were shorter and almost as wide as Gabriola's, she also had a wide shark toothed grin. It made Papyrus's soul clench painfully to see such familiar features on strangers' faces, worse still to realize they looked nothing like him. Did Papyrus not inherit a single feature from this set of grandparents? He supposed it made a twisted kind of sense, he looked so little like Sans it was a wonder he ever believed they were brothers. He'd just always assumed they took after different parents.

He didn't want to think about how right he was.

"What'd the little shit do this time?" Times New Roman asked angrily as she and Gabriola sat on their couch.

"Roman, dear, give the guardsman a chance to speak." Gabriola smiled nervously at Papyrus.

Papyrus frowned at them, "SA- SIMONCINI HASN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG."

"Garamond," Roman corrected tersely. "And we don't hear word from him for years, not since his last embarrassment, and then a **Royal Guardsman** of all people shows up to ask us about him? If he's not in trouble then what? Wait, you didn't bring us his dust, did you?" She gave Papyrus a disgusted look, like she was offended he would dare bring the last earthly remains of her oldest child home to her. Gabriola didn't look any happier at the prospect.

"MOST CERTAINLY NOT!" He couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice at the suggestion that Sans was dead. He wasn't going to die, he would wake up! And be! Just! Fine! "I SIMPLY HAVE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS PAST, IF YOU WOULD LET ME ASK THEM THIS CAN BE OVER WITH SOONER AND WE CAN ALL CARRY ON WITH OUR LIVES." Which he wasn't going to let these two bitches be a part of. He'd barely talked to them and he was already starting to understand Sans's spiteful hatred of them.

"Of course," Gabriola soothed, "you're not here because you want to be here any more than we do."

Papyrus took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. "YOUR OTHER CHILD, SEGOE, DID YOU SEND THEM AWAY BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT SIMON- GARAMOND?"

"Yes," Gabriola said before Roman could speak. "Neither of the children know they had… have an older brother. No one does. Angel above, some days it feels like I don't know either." She laughed at that, high and breathy.

Papyrus thought there were probably some days Sans forgot his parents were still alive too. "VERY WELL, WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE GARAMOND?"

"When he was four," Gabriola said, cutting off Roman once more. "When we... that is, when he ran away from home."

Papyrus raised a brow, "HE RAN AWAY FROM HOME?" His grandparents nodded. "AT FOUR YEARS OLD?"

"Yes," Roman said firmly.

"Nearly five," Gabriola added.

"We thought he was dead. He was such a little thing and had such pitiful stats, we thought for sure there was no way he survived."

"BUT YOU KNEW HE WASN'T DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE." Not to mention the forms he still had tucked away in his inventory, he was sure they'd seen Sans after that psychopath had gotten their hands on him.

Gabriola rubbed absently at the bones between her neck and shoulder. "Well yes, we found out he was still alive… somehow… later. It's just at the time we told the neighbors he'd dusted because we didn't see how he could still be alive."

"IS YOUR CLAVICLE BOTHERING YOU?"

"What? Oh, a little I suppose." Gabriola looked down in surprise before turning her attention back to Papyrus. "It's just an old break that gives me trouble from time to time." She laughed again, "Garamond, the little beast, gave it to me."

"HE BROKE YOUR CLAVICLE WHEN HE WAS FOUR?" Please let this work, please let this work.

"Oh no, this happened later. How old was he then? Ten?"

"Something like that," Roman agreed. "I know it was at work, and you didn't go back until after Segoe was born."

"WHERE DID YOU WORK?" Papyrus asked eagerly.

"Oh it was… hrm… let's see…" Gabriola hemmed and hawed for a while. "You know, I can't remember." She laughed again. "But it was so long ago, who can remember every job they've ever had by the time they're my age?"

Papyrus's face twitched with the effort of keeping it neutral. This may have all happened a long time ago, and they may have been trying to forget, but good lord! Papyrus sent up a silent prayer to any deity that may be listening that he hadn't inherited his grandparents' shoddy memory. "PLEASE, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION."

Gabriola shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I just can't remember. Roman?"

She shook her head as well, "Sorry, but I don't remember either."

"VERY WELL," Papyrus growled out. "EARLIER YOU MENTIONED GARAMOND'S "LAST EMBARRASSMENT," WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?"

"Oh that, it happened a few years later," Roman said breezily. "Garamond, or I guess he goes by Sans now…"

Papyrus had to suppress a full body flinch, he didn't think they knew Sans's name! He really hoped they didn't try to go looking for him!

"… went and got himself knocked up," Roman continued, not noticing Papyrus's reaction. "**As a teenager**! Can you believe it?!"

"And he didn't even tell us," Gabriola said in the most offended tone of voice. "We had to find out second hand. From a rumor!"

"THAT IS PART OF THE INVESTIGATION, YES." Papyrus cleared his throat, hoping to bring his grandparents back on topic. "CAN YOU TELL ME THE IDENTITY OF THE FATHER?"

"He was… someone," Roman said vaguely. "I'm fairly certain we didn't like him."

"Wasn't he my boss?" Gabriola asked uncertainly.

"Was he? Um… maybe? It doesn't sound wrong."

Papyrus had already suspected that, at least he had confirmation… kind of. "CAN YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT HIM? A NAME AT LEAST?"

"It was…" Roman trailed off. "You know, for the life of me I can't remember."

"Really, that wasn't the best time in our lives, I'm not surprised we've forgotten most of it. And it was so long ago."

"YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE FATHER OF YOUR FIRST AND SO FAR ONLY GRANDCHILD?" Papyrus felt his brow twitching with how hard he was focusing on not scowling. Really, he was starting to think this had been nothing but a huge waste of time.

"Well it's not like any of them are even around, now is it? We barely find out we're even going to be grandparents and then poof! They all just disappear from the Underground altogether. For all we know the child was never even born!" Gabriola huffed and crossed her arms, looking away.

"Listen, Garamond made it very clear for a very long time he wants nothing to do with us, I honestly don't see why you're talking to us about him at all."

"YOUR TEENAGED SON, A MERE CHILD, WAS USED AS A TEST SUBJECT IN A FACILITY WHERE HE WAS BASICALLY TORTURED AND THEN IMPREGNATED BY A MONSTER OLD ENOUGH TO BE HIS FATHER. A MONSTER WHO HAD ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER YOUR SON'S LIFE, I MIGHT ADD. _EXCUSE_ ME FOR BEING CONCERNED ABOUT A VERY REAL CRIME WE HAVE EVIDENCE TOOK PLACE." He glowered at the pair as they wilted under his verbal assault. He wanted to tack on that they knew all this was going on and did nothing to stop it, but he didn't want them to think they were about to be arrested.

Papyrus took another deep breath, then continued on in a calm, even tone, "CAN YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR OLD BOSS? ANYTHING AT ALL?"

"He was… well… he was a skeleton, wasn't he?" Roman turned to Gabriola. "He was your boss."

"That's right!" Gabriola perked up. "He was a skeleton! He was… he was very tall, I think? Glasses? Yes he definitely wore glasses. And had narrow eye sockets. In fact, I think he looked an awful lot like you." She squinted at Papyrus.

"Yeah…" Roman said slowly. "You sound like him too, in the voice."

"You know," Gabriola said thoughtfully, looking Papyrus up and down, "you seem very young for a guardsman. How old are you, exactly?"

Shit, shit, shit, it was time to go.

"WELL, YOU'VE BOTH BEEN… WELL YOU TRIED TO BE HELPFUL AND THAT SHOULD COUNT FOR SOMETHING. BUT I HAVE OTHER LEADS TO FOLLOW, SO MANY PEOPLE TO VISIT AND ONLY SO MANY HOURS IN THE DAY. NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME." Papyrus stood as he babbled, then walked quickly to the door.

"Wait," Gabriola had grabbed onto his wrist as he was turning the knob on the front door. "I just realized you never told us your name."

"YOU DON'T DESERVE MY NAME," Papyrus snarled out before freezing as he realized what he'd just said.

"You're him, aren't you? Our little grand baby? All grown up now! How old are you? Seventeen?"

"NO," Papyrus yanked his wrist out of Gabriola's hand before whirling around to lean over and growl into her face. "NO, YOU DON'T GET TO CALL ME THAT! YOU DON'T GET TO SIT THERE AND TELL ME YOU'RE MORE UPSET ABOUT SANS **EMBARRASSING YOU** BY GETTING PREGNANT THAN THE FACT HE WAS BEING USED BY A **GROWN. ASS. MAN!** AND THEN EXPECT ME! TO JUST! CALL YOU **GRANDMA**! LIKE IT'S NORMAL! LIKE YOU EVER EVEN CARED!"

"Please," Roman started to say before Papyrus turned his angry glare on her.

"NO, DON'T EVEN START! I SAW THE INCIDENT REPORT, YOU BOTH KNEW EXACTLY WHERE SANS WAS WHEN HE WAS NINE, YOU HAD FIVE WHOLE YEARS TO PREVENT ME FROM HAPPENING AND DIDN'T DO A DAMN THING! YOU JUST LEFT HIM THERE! AND WHY? BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID YOUR NEIGHBORS WOULD TALK? WELL FUCK, CAN'T HAVE THE NEIGHBORS SPREADING RUMORS!"

"That's not-"

"AND RAN AWAY? AT FOUR YEARS OLD? REALLY? IS THAT JUST THE SANITIZED LIE YOU TELL STRANGERS AND THE OH SO IMPORTANT NEIGHBORS? AND IT'S FUNNY, IT'S SO FUNNY," Papyrus gave a sharp, bitter laugh that sounded a little too much like Gabriola's for his liking, "WHEN I WAS LITTLE EVERY TIME I ASKED SANS ABOUT YOU HE WOULD GET REAL SAD LOOKING, THEN HE'D GET ANGRY AND SAY YOU **CHOSE** NOT TO BE IN OUR LIVES. THAT YOU DON'T DESERVE TO GET INVITED BACK IN. YOU KNOW WHAT? HE'S DAMN RIGHT! I'M SORRY I EVER CAME HERE, I'M SORRY I MET YOU, AND I'M EVEN MORE SORRY I WENT BEHIND SANS'S BACK TO DO IT." Because like hell he was going to tell them what happened. Like hell he was going to tell them Sans was in the New Home hospital, he couldn't imagine how awful it would be if they decided to go visit. What if Sans woke up while they were there? Because he was! He was going to wake up!

"Grand baby, darling, please-"

"NO! FOR THE LAST TIME, NO. I'M LEAVING NOW. YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO HEAR FROM EITHER OF US EVER AGAIN. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TRY TO FIND US, EITHER. YOU DON'T WANT SANS IN YOUR LIFE? FINE, BUT YOU DON'T GET ME IN YOUR LIFE EITHER." He whirled around again and yanked open the door, then slammed it behind him.

Standing next to the step was Segoe, who jumped when the door slammed. They looked up at Papyrus with wide orbits, pips so tiny that for a moment Papyrus thought they had gone out altogether. Papyrus nodded to them, they nodded slowly back. He almost considered stopping to give Segoe some way to contact him, Sans's siblings were innocent, after all. But no, that didn't sit right with him. Besides, he was sure Segoe had some things they'd like to say to their parents. Papyrus turned his face to the street, straightened his spine, and walked away.

* * *

Don't think about how quickly Papyrus broke down after he left, how he had to rush to find someplace secluded he could break down and weep in without being out in the open where anyone could attack him. Don't think about just how heartbroken he was, how that little bit of unspoken hope that his grandparents weren't as awful as Sans remembered shriveled up and died, leaving his soul that much colder. Especially don't think about how desperately hurt and in need of comfort Papyrus was and how the one person who had always been there for him no matter what, the only person to ever love him unconditionally, the only person who he could rely on was laying in a coma in a hospital on the other side of New Home.


	2. Sweet Fifteen

So we're going back in time a little bit, a few years before the start of TTYHTM. This is technically canon but since it's not really part of the story it kind of doesn't really matter? Anyway, this chapter is entirely thanks to Gilded_Pleasure! The comments they left on TTYHTM really got my inspiration flowing and next thing I know I'm writing this!

* * *

Sans started awake, bullets already whizzing around him as he snarled and blearily tried to find the threat. It was his alarm clock. The alarm was going off, the loud blaring stabbing him in the skull. He went limp and sank down into the mattress, one arm slung over his eye sockets despite the room being dark. After a few seconds the blaring alarm got on his last nerve and he blindly fumbled for it.

"alright, 'm up, 'm up!" Sans slurred at the thing before finally finding the off button and pressing it perhaps a little harder than strictly necessary. He yawned wide, then continue to talk to the inanimate object. "what time even izzit?" He looked, then winced and scrunched up his face. "holy hell, 'zway too early fer this shit." He slapped both hands over his face, digging the heels into his eye sockets. "ugh! why was my alarm set for the ass crack of dawn? i jus' wanna sleep! no… no, i set the damned thing fer a reason. get up, ya lazy bones."

He continued to grumble encouragement to himself as he struggled to lever himself up. Maybe he should finally just get a new bed frame, something sturdy enough to withstand any emergency shortcuts that crashed him on the bed. Maybe he'd make it a Gyftmas present to himself. Now there was a joke if he ever heard one.

Finally up, he yawned again as he shuffled slowly out of his room, scratching idly at his sacrum as he went. He could have just shortcut straight to the kitchen, but that would mean completely skipping Papyrus's door altogether. He may be giving the kid his privacy, a luxury Sans was all too happy to be able to give him, but that wouldn't stop him from listening at his door. Muffled snoring could be faintly heard drifting through, Sans couldn't help grinning. His baby was safe, he was safe, they had a home and food and everything else they needed. Life was good.

His next step took him through the void and right into the middle of the kitchen entrance. Then he flipped on the light, which of course immediately blinded him. Sans responded by flipping off the light, then he stumbled over to the coffee maker. It had been prepared the night before so all he had to do was turn the blessed thing on. Sans silently sent a prayer of thanks to his past self. Soon the kitchen would be full of the wonderful scent of caffeine, in the mean time he shuffled over to the wall calendar, certain whatever he had woken up for was written on there.

The day's date was circled in red ink several times. Not that Sans needed the reminder, he could never forget the significance of that date, not even if he suddenly got another gaping hole in his memory. Okay, maybe if that did happen. Maybe he should just tell Papyrus the truth now before whatever stole his memories the first time happened again.

Sans put the brakes on that train of thought before it could get any further. Not today, bitch! Today was a special day! He'd worry about it tomorrow. For now, he had a teenager to go wake up. He left the coffee machine to finish brewing as he stepped right back to Papyrus's door. Carefully and quietly as possible he slowly opened the door, poking his head through to look inside.

Papyrus was sprawled out over his bed, still the race car one Sans had gotten him for his 8th birthday, his limbs awkwardly hanging off the edge or bent up to be able to actually fit, still snoring away. Sans smiled indulgently, the kid was such a heavy sleeper. Talks with Papyrus's classmates' parents had told Sans that it was pretty normal for all teenagers, growing kids needed their sleep after all. Still, Sans couldn't remember ever sleeping that heavily, Nana would surely have taken a picture if she'd ever found him sprawled out and snoring like this. It almost seemed criminal to wake the kid up.

"hey, ya bossy li'l bastard! wake up!" With what Sans liked to think was a clever application of blue magic, he was soaring through the air and onto the bed next to Papyrus. He laughed as he bounced and jostled Papyrus, who woke with a strangled shriek. To his credit his first reaction was to summon a pretty impressive bullet pattern for being half conscious at best.

"WHAT?! WHO DARES! INTERLOPERS! INVADERS!"

Sans couldn't help laughing at that, he had no idea where Papyrus learned these things. Well no, he did have an idea: school. Probably. Not like Sans would know.

"SANS! WHAT THE HELL, BROTHER?"

Sans pushed himself upright, tangled up with Papyrus in his bed sheets, and slung an arm over his shoulders. "happy birthday, ya spoiled brat!"

Papyrus groaned, "MUST YOU DO THIS EVERY YEAR?" A pause as the rest of Sans's comment finally registered. "AND IF I'M SPOILED IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT."

"yeah it is!" Sans laughed, his soul feeling bubbly and light as Papyrus tried to hide a smile. "an' fuck yeah, every year. it's yer birthday, bro! we gotta celebrate!"

"MUST WE CELEBRATE AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR?" He gave a long suffering sigh. "AT LEAST THIS IS AN IMPROVEMENT OVER LAST YEAR."

"so, how's it feel to be fifteen?" Sans plopped himself across Papyrus's lap and looked up at him with his chin resting in his hands.

"SO FAR THE SAME AS FIFTEEN YEARS MINUS ONE DAY, ASIDE FROM SOME BROTHERLY ANNOYANCE."

"funny how aging works."

Papyrus rolled his eyes. As he was about to push Sans off him and untangle himself to get up, Sans's smug grin turned fond. "i'm real prouda ya, papyrus."

"HUH? WHAT FOR THIS TIME?"

"ya hear that?" Sans cupped a hand up to an ear he didn't have.

Papyrus stiffened, head slowly swiveling as he listened intently. After a long pause he slowly turned an exasperated glare down at Sans "I DON'T HEAR ANYTHING."

"exactly!" No pitter patter of little feet, no crying baby, no huge belly clinging to Papyrus's spine. Sans wasn't about to become a grandmother. Not yet (maybe in a few years, if that's what Papyrus wanted, but not yet). He grinned all the wider, Papyrus wasn't going to have to spend his fifteenth birthday the same way Sans had (bloated and miserable, a baby bones abusing his insides), and Sans could only pray he wouldn't have to spend his sixteenth birthday the same way either (holding a nearly one year old baby that would. Not. Stop. Screaming!) Papyrus hadn't repeated his mistake! Not that Papyrus himself had been a mistake, nothing and no one could or would ever hold a candle to him in Sans's eyes, but Sans had been determined that the same thing would never happen to him.

Papyrus scoffed and did finally get around to pushing Sans off him. "YOU'RE SO WEIRD! BUT IT'S STILL BETTER THAN GETTING THE SEX TALK FOR MY PRESENT. UNLESS YOU'RE PLANNING ON REPEATING LAST YEAR." Papyrus looked at him skeptically.

"nah, i figure once was enough. though… if ya really want, goin' over the key points again won't hurt nuthin'."

"I'M LEAVING THE ROOM." And he did, thankfully through the door and down the stairs rather than out the window like the last time he'd said that.

Sans couldn't help an excited giggle as he got up to follow Papyrus down to the kitchen. There was a mug of black coffee waiting him when he arrived, Papyrus still in the middle of preparing his own mug of milk with a splash of coffee. Papyrus yawned widely, orbits already drooped down to half mast. Poor kid was still tired, he must be about to go through another growth spurt. Sans wondered if he was ever going to stop, he'd even surpassed Sans when he'd still been in stripes! And he couldn't remember his own parents very well (he'd been (_nine?_) four the last time he'd seen them, of course his memories were fuzzy), but he's pretty sure Papyrus is already taller than either of them. Doesn't look like them either… he thinks. Sans wonders if Papyrus takes after his father. He wonders if one day he's going to look at his kid and it'll hurt.

Sans shook the thought away, taking a hurried gulp of his coffee to help pull himself from his musings. Today was special! He won't let anything ruin it! "hey paps, how 'bout i call into yer school an' get ya the day off? tell 'em yer sick."

"WHAT? WHY? I'M NOT SICK AT ALL?"

"c'mon! it's yer birthday, they can't do shit if i call it in."

"AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ALL DAY? SIT AT HOME, ALONE AND BORED?"

"i'll call in sick too, we can spend the whole day together."

"NO THANKS, THE PUZZLE CLUB HAS A MEETING TODAY AND I DON'T WANT TO MISS IT."

"a'ight, whatever ya want." He'd already asked for the day off, but he had planned on putting together a whole party while Papyrus was at school anyway. The club meeting would turn into a field trip to their own house. It was going to be great! "speakin' of, whatcha want fer breakfast? we got time to make anythin' ya want."

A glint shone in Papyrus's pure white eye pips, "ANYTHING AT ALL?"

"check the third cupboard," Sans said nonchalantly as he went back to sipping his coffee.

Papyrus scrambled to put down his mug without dropping it in his haste to throw open said cupboard, inside was a brand new, unopened box of dinosaur egg oatmeal. Papyrus squealed in delight as he grabbed the whole thing and started tearing it open. Sans was already digging around for a pot and a pan.

"we're gonna make it a full breakfast, get out the eggplants and sausages."

Papyrus gleefully threw open the fridge and started grabbing supplies, ever his eager little helper. Sans grinned so wide his skull started to ache, but his soul was so full he didn't even care.

"CAN WE HAVE SCRAMBLED EGGPLANTS WITH CHEESE AND PEPPERS?"

"whatever ya want, kiddo."

As they sat down to eat he thought his soul was going to explode with happiness. What a way to dust, just have his soul burst at the seems as he watched Papyrus shovel breakfast into his mouth like he hadn't eaten a full meal in weeks (despite Sans _knowing_ he'd had double portions at dinner the night before.)

Papyrus finally seemed to notice Sans's dreamy stare. "WHAT? WHAT IS IT?"

"nothin', just… i'm so prouda ya."

Papyrus huffed, "YOU SAID THAT ALREADY THIS MORNING."

"sure, but it's still true. i'm prouda ya, an' i'm gonna keep sayin' it s'long as it's still true."

Papyrus blushed so brightly he started glowing and mumbled something Sans didn't quite catch before going back to eating ravenously.

Sans's soul, which had already been full to bursting, swelled even more. He couldn't imagine a life like this when he was fifteen, the fact he had come so far that his own kid wasn't even in the same ballpark… it had his soul overflowing with warm, soft, wonderful feelings. Life was good, and if he had any say in the matter it'd stay that way.

"so proud of you," he murmured one last time before digging into his own breakfast.


	3. Epilogue of a Sort

Okay so this is the more canon "Meeting the Grandparents" but it's uh... way less interesting? In my opinion? It's why I wrote the other one first, but I wrote this anyway because 1. It acts as a kind of epilogue 2. My muse insisted this had to be written before the next chapter and 3. I need me that hurt/comfort. Which one is actually canon is up to you. Kinda. I'll be writing more stories and any references to Paps meeting his grandparents will be assuming this as canon, but honestly I'm going to try to keep it vague. I have no plans for them to ever be important to the story.

* * *

It had been a few weeks since Sans returned from the hospital and despite the monumental, life changing reveal that happened along with it life hadn't actually changed all that much. They fell back into their routines: going to work, hanging out with friends, dinner together whenever possible, sometimes just spending an evening together on the couch, Sans dozing while Papyrus watched whatever was on the MTT channel.

"I'M NOT SURE WHAT TO CALL YOU," Papyrus said one morning as Sans was groggily pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"eh, you can jus' keep callin' me sans if ya want."

"SANS, YOU'RE MY MOTHER, THAT FEELS A LITTLE DISRESPECTFUL."

Sans snorted, "like i care 'bout that. 'sides, i been callin' ya bro yer whole life, it'd be weird to suddenly change now."

"DO… YOU NOT WANT TO BE CALLED MOTHER?"

"i like the sounda "dad" better if i got a choice." Sans blushed and looked away, absently scratching at his mandible before turning back. "but honestly it's up to **you**. if you want to call me mother or dad or brother or just throw titles out the window and call me by my name then that's fine. i'll support you no matter what, and if anyone says anything it's their own problem and they can go shove it."

"HMMM… AUNTY HAS A GOOD RING TO IT."'

"okay, so maybe not **anything**, pick somethin' else."

Papyrus tested out various things to call Sans in the privacy of their own home, but they all felt wrong. "Brother" was too dishonest, "mother" and "dad" felt foreign on his teeth, in the end he did go with just "Sans." And if that also meant not having to explain Sans's traumatic and "classified" past with anyone else… well, that was just a fringe benefit.

They had a few more conversations like that, apropos of nothing Papyrus would blurt out a question about Sans, or Naiad, or a form from Sans's files, and Sans would answer. Some of his answers were more joke than answer or dragged unwillingly from him, but he would answer. And even if some of the things he said were more evasive than others they were still pieces of the puzzle that helped him see the larger picture.

Thus one evening Sans came home from hanging out at Grillby's (and Papyrus noted that Sans seemed lighter, brighter, and smiled wider, he wasn't sure how to feel about that) to find Papyrus staring intently at one of the forms from his files.

"whatcha got there, boss?"

"YOUR PARENTS' ADDRESS."

"oh." There was a long, awkward pause as Sans looked at Papyrus with wide, dark sockets. "so uh… whatcha gonna do with it?"

Papyrus took in a deep breath, "I WANT TO VISIT THEM."

Another pause, this one much shorter. "ok."

"IT'S IMPORTANT, SANS, THEY'RE FAMILY."

"ok."

"EVEN IF THEY STILL DON'T WANT US IT'LL BE A GOOD CHANCE FOR SOME CLOSURE."

"ok."

"TO AT LEAST KNOW FOR SURE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER."

"ok."

"AND I WANT YOU TO COME WITH ME."

"no."

"SANS…" Papyrus said in his sternest voice.

"no, papyrus. i can't-" Sans growled and ran a hand down his face, then with a deep sigh he plopped onto the couch next to Papyrus. "they didn't want me badly enough to get rid of me when i was just a babybones, i think they didn't ever want me."

"THEY HAD TWO MORE CHILDREN, CLEARLY IF THEY DIDN'T WANT ANY THEY'D HAVE TAKEN BETTER PREVENTATIVE MEASURES, OR GOTTEN RID OF YOUR SIBLINGS."

"yeah, exactly, they didn't want me."

"IF YOU'RE TRYING TO IMPLY THEY WERE TOO YOUNG OR OTHERWISE NOT READY FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CHILDREN I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT WE'RE BOTH GROWN ADULTS."

"that's not it! papyrus it's **me** they didn't want. me an' my shitty stats an' my constant naps an' everything that comes with bein' different. with bein'… with bein' sick."

There wasn't much Papyrus could say to that.

"yeah. so if ya want to go meet them then go for it, have my blessin' if ya need it, but don't ask me to go with ya."

"BUT YOU'RE AN ADULT, AND SO ARE YOUR SIBLINGS AND SO AM I. THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU ANYMORE. THEY… THEY MAY HAVE CHANGED, THEY MAY EVEN REGRET WHAT THEY DID."

Sans snorted. "good, let them regret it, it was a pretty crappy thing to do."

"I DON'T WANT TO GO ALONE."

"papyrus, please, i can't, i just can't. i can't promise to be all polite an' shit, i can't promise not to just attack those bitches the way i did when i saw one at the lab, an' i can't bear the thought of tryina forgive them. or seein' them be good parents to my li'l sibs and still hate me just as much as i hate them. so please, papyrus, don't ask me to go with you."

Papyrus gave a deep sigh of his own, "ALRIGHT SANS."

"take someone else with ya, undyne already knows what's goin' on."

Papyrus wasn't so sure taking her was a better option, when she was given the cliffsnotes version of Sans's life story she'd gone into a rage that had destroyed several pieces of her own furniture. And a wall. Again. She was just as likely to attack Sans's parents as Sans himself, and with far more collateral damage into the deal. No, it wasn't Undyne he could take with him, and Sans wouldn't. There was no one else who knew, too many secrets they couldn't begin to explain. Too many holes in their memory that their mind would slide right over. He had to do this alone.

Papyrus ended up going on his next day off, and try as he might he couldn't hide his nervousness. Sans couldn't either, fussing over him right before he left. "an' remember, they can't remember anything to do with _him_ or his lab, so they probably don't even remember seein' me again or gettin' attacked. they probably also fergot you was on the way too, if they ever even knew."

"YES, I'LL LIKELY BE A LARGE SURPRISE TO THEM."

"hope it gives one'a them a heart attack," Sans grumbled bitterly.

"AND THERE'S NOTHING I CAN TAKE WITH ME TO PROVE WHO I AM?"

Sans shrugged, "s'not like i got any momentos from them. maybe a baby pic?"

"I SUPPOSE THAT WOULD WORK." Papyrus grabbed the photo album from it's new home in the living room, one of the few good changes in Papyrus's opinion. He didn't realize how nice it was to have his memories laid out on pages like that until he'd had easy access to it at the slightest whim. He pulled out a picture, one of the random ones Nana had taken of the three of them smiling together when he'd been a toddler, her arm stretched out to hold the camera, beautiful in its everyday domestic happiness but not something that would be missed horribly if it were lost or damaged.

"ya sure about this?" Sans asked again.

"YES, SANS, THEY'RE OUR FAMILY. THEY DESERVE TO AT LEAST KNOW, DON'T THEY?"

"no, but if ya feel ya gotta do this then ya better get goin'."

"I DO." So he got going.

The trip all the way to New Home was long. Too long, he felt, too much time spent worrying about meeting his grandparents for the first time, his aunt and auncle too if they were there. He waffled between choking dread and wonderful, impossible hope.

Papyrus knocked on the door. A familiar stranger that looked almost just like Sans (if a little taller) answered the door. "Hello?" They asked while looking Papyrus up and down suspiciously.

"HELLO, ARE YOU GABRIOLA OR TIMES NEW ROMAN?"

"No, but they're my parents."

Papyrus nodded, then waited for this skeleton (one of his auncles?) to go get them. And waited. And continued to wait. "ARE YOU GOING TO GO GET THEM?"

"Depends, who are you?"

"MY NAME IS PAPYRUS, AND I'M…" He hesitated, unsure if he should tell them who he is or not. "I'M GARAMOND'S SON."

The other skeleton, who hadn't even introduced themself yet!, didn't show any recognition at the name. "Right, well I'll tell Mom but I can't promise anything." They shut the door and left Papyrus standing there. He waited, fidgeting nervously the whole time.

He heard sharp, shrill words muffled by the door, "… I'm telling you it's all fine and you don't need to worry!" The door opened, a skeleton with Sans's sharp, fixed smile stood in the doorway, looking back over their shoulder as they continued to speak. "Go on, I'll take care of this. It's probably just some misunderstanding."

There was a huff from beyond the door, but the skeleton in the doorway ignored it as they turned to Papyrus.

"Hello, I'm Roman, Segoe said you wanted to see me?"

"YES, MY NAME IS PAPYRUS AND I'M GARAMOND'S SON." He paused a moment, then added, "YOUR GRANDSON."

"There must be some confusion, I don't have a son." Papyrus was about to argue that she most certainly did when the skeleton continued right on, "Never had a son and this late in life I doubt I ever will. Gabriola hasn't either. Sorry you came all this way, but you're at the wrong house. Good luck with that though, bye." Without any further warning she shut the door right in Papyrus's face.

Papyrus banged on the door a few times, angrily screaming at it, "I NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT **YOU** HAVING A SON! HOW DID YOU KNOW SA- GARAMOND IS A BOY IF I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?!"

All he got was a muffled, "Go away before I call the Royal Guard," through the door.

"I AM THE ROYAL GUARD!" Papyrus yelled back. Sadly, it didn't change anyone's mind. "FINE! WHO NEEDS SOULLESS BITCHES LIKE YOU FOR GRANDPARENTS ANYWAY?!" He yelled one last time before stomping angrily home, muttering under his breath the whole way.

Sans was waiting for him on the couch when he stomped in through the door. He looked up at Papyrus, an expression of longing and hope that immediately fell away when he saw Papyrus's stiff, trembling form, fighting back the tears gathering in the corners of his eye sockets. Sans just held open his arms, Papyrus dove in for a hug. He arranged himself to sit curled up in Sans's lap. Sans sighed as he began rocking Papyrus, gently running a hand up and down his spine as he let the younger skeleton cry his pips out.

"so," Sans started once the storm of tears had died down.

"THEY DIDN'T EVEN LET ME GET OUT MORE THAN YOUR NAME BEFORE SLAMMING THE DOOR IN MY FACE AND THREATENING TO CALL THE GUARD."

Sans sighed again. "yeah, that sounds like something they'd do."

"WELL, ONLY ONE OF THEM. ROMAN."

"doesn't matter, the other one'd do the same, maybe politely tell ya to fuck off first."

"SHE KIND OF DID? TOLD ME I MUST BE CONFUSED AND WAS AT THE WRONG HOUSE."

"yeah, that sounds like her. the other one wouldn't bother with the lie, just smile and tell you to go 'way an' never come back. probably hit ya with the door while she was at it."

"I'M SORRY I DIDN'T LISTEN."

"don't be, yer not the one that was a huge ass. an' ya weren't wrong, they might have softened up a bit after a while. they didn't, but we wouldn't know if ya didn't go."

"WHO NEEDS THEM? WE HAVE EACH OTHER AND THAT'S ALL THE FAMILY I'VE EVER NEEDED!" It rang hollow even as Papyrus spoke, but it still felt better than just accepting total rejection like that.

"yeah, family is what ya make it an' we make a pretty good family."

Papyrus pulled out the photo he'd tucked away earlier and stared down at it. "NANA WOULD NEVER HAVE DONE THAT TO HER FAMILY."

"yeah, she was classy like that. an' she didn't ever do it to us either."

"SHE WAS A BETTER GRANDMOTHER THAN EITHER OF THOSE TWO."

"fuck yeah she was."

"EVEN THOUGH I STILL CAN'T REMEMBER HER."

Sans sighed yet again, deeper and heavier than any before. "yeah, sorry 'bout that."

"THIS SUCKS," Papyrus added petulantly.

"yeah, this whole situation sucks. go 'head an' cry 'bout it, let it all out. hell, i feel like cryin' too."

Papyrus quickly scrubbed the tears from his face with his shirt sleeve. "NO, I'D RATHER YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT NANA INSTEAD." He held up the photo for Sans, "WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND THIS ONE?"

"uh… not sure i remember that exact picture. she did that a lot, just jam the three of us in real close and hold up the camera whenever she felt like it. mosta the time the pic came out awful, we'd all be cut off from the nose down or in a far corner or somethin'. heh, one time she got just the tops of our heads, i swear she did it on purpose…"

Papyrus snuggled in deeper, staring at the photo of his happy, smiling family as Sans rambled on about the antics his real grandmother got up to.


	4. Getting to Know Yourself

There's a bit of miscommunication which leads to some assumptions about pedophilia that aren't directly referenced. No one was happy with this, least of all me for writing it. T_T

* * *

"hey edge!" An arm was slung around Papyrus's shoulder along with the shout, pulling him in close to his _slightly_ taller alternate as he murmured in his audio canal, "all us younger bros are gonna sneak off and leave the big bros to themselves for a bit. a chance for us to get to know you without them hovering."

Papyrus carefully peeled off Stretch's arm (and seriously! They may all technically be the same person but that didn't give them permission to be all touchy feely like they knew him) and nodded. Stretch just laughed and nodded towards the back of the room, glancing back at the others before leading the way out. Or Papyrus thought that's what he did, it was hard to tell with the way his eye sockets didn't have any pips in them. All the other Papyruses were like that, it was really weird.

Papyrus followed Stretch through a smaller room with nothing but a table and chairs, a vaguely familiar rock surrounded by what appeared to be chunks of colorful rock candy on a plate in the center of the table. Just past that was a curtain already pulled back to reveal a sliding glass door, they walked through it onto a wooden deck that spanned the entire backside of the house and led out to a wide, grassy expanse. Papyrus stepped out and to the side, no doubt the others would be coming through the door soon, and tipped his head back to bask in the warm glow of the sun.

One week since a small human child bravely emerged from the Ruins and somehow planted themself right into Papyrus's and Sans's lives as if they'd known them for ages. Six days since the barrier was shattered and Monsterkind freed. Six days since they found out about the other, alternate Undergrounds that were all somehow inside the one cavern. Papyrus honestly didn't understand it, something about timelines and parallel universes and butterflies flapping in someplace called Australia. No one had yet, but if someone said the word "paradox" he was just going to walk away from the whole mess. They had the whole world now! It was bigger than he could have ever imagined, it would be so easy to just leave and never come back.

The gist of it was that there were alternate timelines that split off when the Barrier was created, each one emptying onto the same mountainside as each Barrier was destroyed. Theirs was the fifth so far, and there was no knowing just how many there were. Sans… no wait, he picked the nickname Red. He'd said it was possible there were infinite alternate timelines and monsters would continue to flood out of the mountain in waves for the rest of eternity. Papyrus didn't think that was possible, but what did he know?

The sliding door opened. Sunny came out of the house along with Slim, who he'd roped into helping carry the chairs he and Stretch had passed by earlier. There were only the four (twice the number of chairs he and Sans owned) so someone was going to end up in one of the two so called "lawn chairs" sitting on the deck. Likely Stretch and Slim would fight over who got it. Or maybe they'd each take one and Sunny had brought out an extra chair for no reason? Papyrus was still getting used to the thought of even having alternates, let alone getting to know all their quirks and differences.

"EDGE!" Sunny called with a cheery wave after setting the chairs down around the lawn chairs, "COME SIT DOWN, ASTRO WILL BE OUT SHORTLY." He smiled and patted one of the chairs.

Papyrus walked over and sat down. He watched in amusement as Slim took a lawn chair only for Stretch to abandon the one he'd claimed and bodily shoved Slim over to share. It seemed Papyrus wasn't the only one he was touchy with.

"SO, HOW ARE YOU AND RED LIKING THE SURFACE SO FAR?"

"WE'RE LIKING IT VERY MUCH, SA- I MEAN RED…"

"it's okay, dude, the nicknames are for us to call you, not you to call your bro," Stretch mumbled.

"yeah," Slim agreed, "we all know when anya us say "sans" we're talking 'bout our own bro. s'long as you know who we're talking 'bout is all good." While he talked he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Stretch looked completely offended and got up (with much flailing elbows to the ribs on both sides) to return to the other lawn chair.

"WE'RE LIKING IT VERY MUCH. SANS GOES TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN TO WATCH THE STARS EVERY NIGHT, IT MAKES HIM NEAR USELESS DURING THE DAY BUT HE SEEMS SO HAPPY."

"SANS WAS THE SAME WAY WHEN OUR BARRIER BROKE TOO!" Sunny said enthusiastically.

"yeah, it seems to be a sans thing." Stretch laughed from his laid back position, "he refused to give up his rocket ship bed when we got the house up here."

"AND WHY WOULD HE? HE HAS SUCH A COOL BED! ALMOST AS COOL AS MY RACE CAR BED, WHICH I ALSO REFUSED TO GIVE UP. SANS EVEN HELPED ME MOVE IT TO THE SURFACE." Sunny turned his attention to Papyrus then, along with the others.

"I STOPPED SLEEPING IN MY RACE CAR BED WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN," Papyrus said proudly. Never mind that it was within weeks of his eighteenth birthday and it had been a bit of a scramble for Sans to find him a new, stylish, _mature_ bed frame. "WE DID PUT IT INTO STORAGE FOR SOME REASON, THOUGH I SUPPOSE IN THE END IT WAS A WISE DECISION, THE BED BELONGS TO FRISK NOW."

"same," Slim said. "frisk really likes it, says is the coolest bed ever. but sans got 'imself this space print bedding set."

"OH? THAT'LL BE GOOD FOR WHEN WE GET APPROVED FOR A HOUSE UP HERE," Papyrus said eagerly. Even with this being the fifth Underground to move up to the surface it still took time to find or build the entirety of Monsterkind new homes and get them moved up. "WHERE DID YOU GET THEM?"

"if you're lucky the big box store'll 'ave 'em, but if not you can get **anything** from the web."

While Slim was talking the door opened and shut again, Papyrus turned to see Astro carrying a small, white box, his steps incredibly light despite the fact he towered over even the tallest of them. (Edge wasn't jealous at all, nor was he the least bit bitter about being the undeniably shortest Papyrus.)

"SORRY TO TAKE SO LONG, IT WAS HARD TO SNEAK AWAY ONCE OUR OLDER BROTHERS NOTICED YOU HAD LEFT."

Papyrus doubted they hadn't noticed him sneaking away too, or Sans at least.

"IT'S ALRIGHT, WE UNDERSTAND," Sunny said cheerfully as he grinned up at Astro. "WE HAVEN'T STARTED YET ASIDE FROM A LITTLE SMALL TALK."

"EXCELLENT," Astro exclaimed as he opened the lid on the box, revealing it to be a small chest full of bottles and ice. Far more bottles than should be able to fit into such a small thing. Papyrus plucked out a bottle and simply held it as he waited for the others to pick out their own and deftly open them. He felt validated when he noticed Slim doing the same. Astro set the chest onto an empty chair before taking the other for himself. "SO HOW SHALL WE DO THIS? IT'S REDUNDANT FOR US TO TELL EACH OTHER ABOUT OURSELVES AGAIN, BUT IT WOULDN'T BE FAIR TO EDGE TO MAKE HIM TELL US EVERYTHING WITHOUT HIM GETTING TO KNOW US TOO."

"'ow 'bout you two chatter boxes tell 'im 'bout us for us?" Slim suggested.

"YOU TWO JUST WANT TO BE LAZY," Astro scolded.

"BUT IT WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE THINGS MORE INTERESTING," Sunny said thoughtfully. "AND THEY CAN'T COMPLAIN WHEN WHAT WE SAY IS PURE OPINION."

"OH! THAT'S TRUE!" Astro grinned widely, then sipped his drink. "ALRIGHT, WE CAN START BY GOING AROUND AND GIVING SOME INFORMATION ABOUT OURSELVES. FOR INSTANCE: IN THE LOW LV TIMELINES DAD ADOPTED SANS WHEN HE WAS GIVEN UP BY HIS PARENTS, BUT IN SLIM'S TIMELINE DAD WAS VOLUNTEERED TO FOSTER BLACK BY QUEEN TORIEL."

Papyrus shuddered, his _father_ had adopted Sans in other timelines? How disgusting! "MY TIMELINE ISN'T SIMILAR AT ALL THEN, SANS WAS ABANDONED AND LIVED AS A STREET ORPHAN FOR A FEW YEARS BEFORE GETTING CAUGHT BY THE GUARD AND HANDED OVER TO _HIM_ TO BE A TEST SUBJECT."

"HOW HORRIBLE!" Sunny said sadly, his face full of pity Papyrus didn't want and Sans didn't need. Not now, not after so long.

"ARE ALL THE FRISKS REALLY AS SIMILAR AS I WAS TOLD?" Papyrus asked as an obvious subject change. He finally took the first sip of his drink, surprised that it tasted of alcohol. He checked the label: Muffet's Hard Spider Cider. Huh, well it's not like this was his first ever drink. He took another swig.

"YES," Sunny answered, oblivious to Papyrus's surprise over his drink. "IT SEEMS THEY WERE DUPLICATED ACROSS ALL THE TIMELINES WHEN THEY FELL INTO THE UNDERGROUND-"

Astro scoffed.

"… AND NOW THEY GET A BRAND NEW IDENTICAL TWIN EVERY TIME A BARRIER IS BROKEN," Sunny continued.

"hold up, what was that just now?" Stretch asked from his prone position on the lawn chair.

"WHAT WAS WHAT?" Astro asked in confusion.

"edge and the drink, what's with that weird face you made?"

Papyrus shrugged, "I WAS A LITTLE SURPRISED IT HAS ALCOHOL IN IT."

"DO WE REALLY SEEM LIKE SUCH STICKS IN THE MUD THAT WE WOULDN'T HAVE A LITTLE TO DRINK WHILE HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS?" Sunny asked with his hand pressed dramatically to his cropped knit sweater.

"YOU WOULDN'T START YOUR CAR UNTIL BOTH SANS AND I HAD BUCKLED OUR SEAT BELTS." And what a glorious drive that had been, Sunny had a car with a retractable roof! Papyrus wasn't too proud to admit he coveted that car and had immediately looked up all the requirements to get one.

"WELL YES, SAFETY IS VERY IMPORTANT. BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH HAVING A FEW DRINKS IN THE SAFETY OF SLIM'S HOME?"

"IT'S JUST YOU SEEM LIKE SUCH STICKLERS FOR EVEN THE STUPIDEST OF HUMAN LAWS, IT'S STRANGE YOU'D IGNORE THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE."

"WE'RE NOT?" Sunny looked to the others in confusion.

"I WAS TOLD IT WAS TWENTY-ONE?"

"IT IS," Astro agreed, "SILLY FOR IT TO BE A DIFFERENT AGE THAN LEGAL ADULTHOOD."

"wait, hold up, how old are you?" Stretch asked as he sat up and threw his legs over the side of his lawn chair, leaning forward to stare up at Papyrus.

"NINETEEN, OF COURSE." Papyrus looked around at the others, all staring back at him with jaws hanging loose. "WAIT, HOW OLD ARE ALL OF YOU?"

He was met with a chorus of "22" from the others.

"HOW ABOUT WE JUST TAKE THAT AWAY…"

"I WILL BITE YOU," Papyrus snarled at Astro's approaching hand. He pulled it back, then shrugged and took another swig of his own cider.

"okay, but how are you a different age than us? i thought we were all on the same year?"

They compared their calendars and found out that yes, they were all definitely on the same year. Strangely the two birthdays were about four months (and three years) apart.

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT," Papyrus said and held his hand up. "HOW OLD ARE YOUR BROTHERS?"

A chorus of "34" echoed around him.

"THAT'S… THAT'S SANS'S AGE. JUST HOW OLD WAS HE WHEN YOU WERE BORN?" The math couldn't be adding up.

"twelve, duh."

"DON'T DUH HIM, THAT MAKES RED FIFTEEN WHEN EDGE WAS BORN."

Twelve. The same age Sans had claimed to be before he told Papyrus the truth. So either the alternates hadn't been told the truth yet and their Sanses were also three years older or…

Or they had actually been…

Papyrus felt ill.

"SO IT SEEMS OUR PARENTS WAITED A FEW YEARS TO HAVE YOU IN YOUR TIMELINE," Astro started, "BUT WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS HOW REN WAS STILL AROUND TO EVEN HAVE YOU WHEN IN OUR TIMELINES THEY FELL DOWN AFTER THEIR MOTHER DIED WHEN WE WERE JUST OVER A YEAR OLD."

"WHAT?" Papyrus asked blankly, still reeling at the news. Sans was still alive, and so were both his parents. That sequence of words didn't make any sense.

"you know, renny. our mother," Stretch said helpfully. "arial."

Papyrus's jaw flapped a few times as he tried to force the word "WHO" out, but it seemed to be stuck.

"IT'S SO SAD I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM, SANS SAYS THEY WERE ALWAYS VERY KIND TO HIM," Astro said sadly.

"yeah, photo albums and stories just aren't the same," Stretch added.

"THEY REALLY AREN'T," Papyrus agreed absently. His hands were shaking just the slightest bit, so he clutched his cider a little tighter.

Slim eyed them all, but remained silent. Perhaps Black didn't have fond stories of this Arial person to tell him.

Their conversation continued without him, Papyrus let it turn into buzzing background noise as his thoughts whirled around this new revelation: he doesn't have the same parents as his alternates.

It made a strange kind of sense, the first thing he'd noticed was he was the only one of them to have pips lighting up his eye sockets; all the Sanses had pips, but the other Papyruses all had tall, empty sockets. He had also noted he was the only Papyrus to not have cheekbones that could cut glass. For all that he had fangs just as sharp as Slim's (and even longer, too!), his cheeks were quite dull, almost rounded compared to even Sunny or Stretch. And he was noticeably shorter than them all too. Before Papyrus, Slim was the shortest. They had all thought it was a consequence of living in a violent timeline, but Sunny, Stretch, and Slim were all within an inch or so of each other (Astro and Cosmic both stood a full head taller than their own counterparts and didn't count). Papyrus barely came up to Slim's nasal aperture, not as short as even the tallest Sans but…

"EDGE?"

Papyrus took a deep breath, blinking as he came back to the here and now. He hadn't realized how caught up he'd been in his own thoughts.

"THERE YOU ARE."

"no, don't touch 'im."

Papyrus's pips (he was the only Papyrus to have them) trailed down to where Sunny's hand was reaching out for him, Slim tightly holding his wrist.

"give 'im some space, yeah?" Slim turned his attention to Papyrus. "'ow ya doing?"

"SORRY, IT SEEMS I GOT LOST IN MY OWN HEAD FOR A MOMENT." He took a swig, a little mad at himself for letting his guard down so thoroughly. Alternates or not they were still complete strangers.

"look, if you don't want to talk about renny or our childhoods that's fine," Stretch said carefully.

"OH YES!" Astro agreed happily. "THERE'S PLENTY OF OTHER THINGS WE CAN TALK ABOUT, LIKE UNDYNE OR THE ROYAL GUARD OR SNOWDIN."

"WAS THERE A SNOWDIN ON YOUR ASTEROID?" Edge asked curiously, but also gratefully. He welcomed the change in subject.

"IT WAS A COMET, ACTUALLY. AND YES! THERE WERE A LOT OF THEORIES THAT IT WAS MONSTERS AND OUR INHERIT MAGIC AFFECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT, WE DID SPEND A FEW CENTURIES INSIDE BEFORE VENTURING TO THE COMET'S SURFACE AFTER ALL, BUT SINCE THE BARRIER BROKE THE HOT NEW THEORY IS MULTIVERSAL CONVERGENCE. SANS AND COMIC HAVE BEEN STUDYING THE TIMELINES TOGETHER AND THEY SAY THE "SEMI-ARTIFICIAL"," he even did the exaggerated finger quotes, "NATURE OF THE TIMELINE SPLIT MAY HAVE HAD THEM AFFECTING EACH OTHER." Astro went on to explain what he understood of his brother's work, Papyrus nodded along as he listened.

The topic did move on and change, Papyrus gathered more differences between his own timeline and the others. He found out his _father_ was the first to erase himself from existence, the others all having their accidents within a few months of each other but not at the exact same time, but all years after his own birth. Despite that Papyrus was the last to move to Snowdin, the other Sanses going straight there and asserting themselves in the house that was a universal constant. Papyrus reasoned that being a couple years older was enough for him to have developed the confidence to pull such a stunt. Not to mention having a younger brother just old enough to start school rather than a screaming newborn made living on their own viable.

None of them had ever met the Naiad of their timelines.

Papyrus felt sick at soul when that latest realization hit him. He might not remember Nana, but he knew Sans still did and treasured those memories. He quietly listened to them go on about who was or wasn't in the Royal Guard, what their Undynes were like, whether the various Mettatons or M. C. Overclockeds were better looking, and an argument over the various Asgores' and Toriels' ruling styles. Papyrus kept his mouth shut on that one, so did Slim.

He grew tired of sitting there listening to the others prattle on, forced to talk about his own timeline in turn. He really just wanted to go home and talk this over with Sans, maybe they could even figure out why their timeline was so different, where _he_ went so wrong. Likely it was whatever caused Arial not to be in _his_ life. How should he even feel about this stranger that wasn't his mother? Were he and the others even the same person if they didn't have the same parents? Was their name just a coincidence? Was his birth just the universe trying to fill an empty spot and Sans was the unfortunate means?

"edge, where'd you go?"

"SORRY, GOT LOST IN MY THOUGHTS AGAIN."

"WELL IT **IS** A LOT TO TAKE IN, PERHAPS WE SHOULD GO BACK TO JUST SMALL TALK."

"I THINK I'D BE BETTER OFF JUST GOING HOME."

"OH DEAR, WHAT'S WRONG? CAN WE HELP IN SOME WAY? ARE YOU ILL?" Sunny's brow wrinkled in concern. "SLIM, DO YOU HAVE ANY MEDICINE FOR AN UPSET STOMACH? I BET IT WAS THE ALCOHOL."

Papyrus rolled his eye pips, "THAT WAS HARDLY MY FIRST DRINK." He decided to down the last of it, then stood and headed for the back door.

"y'know there's a side gate, just 'ead that way," Slim pointed in the opposite direction, "and sunny can take you 'ome, yeah?"

"I'M NOT LEAVING SANS BEHIND," Papyrus snapped indignantly.

"well it's just after three so…" Stretch trailed off into a shrug.

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?"

"three o'clock slump," Stretch said with a sage nod. The others all made varying noises or motions of agreement.

Papyrus had no idea what that even meant and he was done dealing with these… other… skeletons. He nudged aside the space between him and the door so he could leave as quickly as possible. Inside the living room he found out what Stretch meant, he hopes assumes. All the Sanses are laid out in various places, Zs floating up and away (or in Cosmic's case down and away because he was ignoring gravity so hard that he was floating near the ceiling) from them. Sans was half leaned back into the couch's corner, his legs over the front at such an odd angle they didn't even touch the floor. Comic was on the other end of the couch, lying spread eagle, face down over the arm with his head dangling off the end. Blue was sitting in the armchair upside down, his feet hooked over the back of the chair and his head dangling off the seat, much like Comic but on his back instead. And Black, for some reason, was curled up on top of a bookshelf like some sort of bony cat.

Papyrus had seen Sans nap in weird places, but this was like they had all decided to have some sort of weird nap contest (and sadly it looked like Sans was in last place). He pinched his nasal bridge, trying to fight off the oncoming headache.

"see? three o'clock slump," Stretch said smugly. "most monsters just grab a snack and power through or give in and lay down for a nap, but these guys just conk out wherever."

"yours might, sans always ends up someplace secure first," Slim said proudly while looking up at Black.

"WELL SANS WILL JUST HAVE TO FINISH HIS NAP AT HOME." Papyrus went to stand in front of the couch.

"OH, SHOULD I GO START MY CAR?"

"NO NEED, HE CAN JUST SHORTCUT US HOME." They may be lazy, but the Surface was huge and Sans's shortcuts had turned out to be incredibly useful.

"EDGE, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TRY TO **WAKE** YOUR BROTHER, ARE YOU?" Astro sounded horrified, or possibly personally offended.

Papyrus ignored him, instead he put his hands on his hips and said, "SANS, WAKE UP," perhaps a bit harsher than he meant to.

"huh? wuz goin' on?" Sans slurred, eye sockets half lidded and fuzzy pips darting around the room.

"oh shit, that actually worked!"

"SANS, GET UP! WE'RE GOING HOME."

"wha' 'appened?" Sans asked blearily as he sat up and rubbed an eye socket.

"I'LL EXPLAIN LATER, AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR NAP. AT HOME. PREFERABLY IN YOUR BED." Or the couch. Neither were half acceptable after seeing what was available on the Surface, but for now it was all they had.

"right, ok." He yawned wide, then looked up at Papyrus and squinted. "wow, ya look freaked out. just found out the other sanses ain't the other papyruses' moms?"

"WAIT, WHAT?!"

"OH MY GOD, SANS!" With a loud clack Papyrus buried his face in his hands.

"what? i thought we agreed that people findin' out didn't really matter?"

"FOR THE MOST PART, BUT I DID JUST FIGURE OUT THAT **WE**," Papyrus motioned between himself and his not-alternates sharply, "AREN'T ACTUALLY THE SAME PERSON AFTER ALL AND I'M HAVING A TINY LITTLE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OVER IT. CAN WE **PLEASE** JUST GO HOME ALREADY? NOW."

"well since yer all polite an' shit. i'll never understand where ya got yer manners from."

"CERTAINLY NOT YOU."

"wait, wait, wait, don't go just yet." Stretch grabbed onto Papyrus's arm, "did he just say he's your mom?!"

"yeah, i did, and i'd 'preciate it if ya let my kid go." Sans grinned sharply up at Stretch.

"aren't you going to explain?!"

"YES! PLEASE EXPLAIN BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"

Sans grunted, "i already explained the whole thing to yer bros, ask them when they wake up. can't believe they're all _sleepin'_ through this, expected blackie at least to wake up the moment intent got goin'."

"that's 'cause you can't muster up any intent against 'im," Slim said casually, hands stuffed deep in his coat pockets. "stretch, jus' let 'im go. our bros can tell us the 'ole thing later, an' red looks 'bout ready to drop."

Sans glowered sleepily at Slim, probably angry anyone besides Papyrus could read him so well.

Stretch reluctantly backed off. And there were the expressions of vague horror and pity on their faces he had wanted to avoid. He wondered if the other Sanses looked like that. He wondered how Sans hadn't torn them all to shreds for it. He wondered if having his face (or _his_ face) was enough to keep Sans from tearing the other Papyruses to shreds.

Then he blinked, or maybe the world blinked, and they were in their own living room. Sans flopped onto the couch, eye sockets half lidded as he tiredly patted the cushion next to him.

"YOU SHOULD LIE DOWN, APPARENTLY NAP TIME IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR SANSES."

"c'mon, boss, i can hear yer gears grindin' from here."

Papyrus sat down on the couch and thumped his skull against the backrest, heaving a great sigh. "I'M NOT THE SAME AS THEM."

"neither am i."

"BUT YOU'RE ALL STILL THE SAME PERSON AT YOUR CORE, YOU HAVE THE SAME PAST, THE SAME **PARENTS**."

"we may have the same parents, but that don't mean we got the same past. did the others tell ya about how i'm the only sans that lived on the street before meeting _him_?"

"YES."

"that's a whole slew of skills an' experiences they ain't got, maybe no other sans in any timeline ever got."

"AND NONE OF THEM ARE A MOTHER EITHER," Papyrus spat out bitterly.

"ya sound like ya regret bein' born."

"I REGRET THE SITUATION AROUND MY BIRTH. YOU WERE **FIFTEEN**, SANS! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EVER BEEN IN THAT SITUATION TO BEGIN WITH."

"no, i shouldn't have, but i still don't regret gettin' to be yer mom."

Somehow living most of his life believing Sans's lie about being brothers made Papyrus doubt that.

"is that really what this is about? yer upset the other sansies had slightly less messed up childhoods?"

"WE ALL HAVE THE SAME NAME, AND TO EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT A SELECT FEW WE ALL HAVE THE SAME RELATIONSHIP, BUT THEY'RE NOT ACTUALLY MY ALTERNATES. WE'RE DIFFERENT PEOPLE."

"yer all still _his_ kid, that's gotta count fer somethin'."

"IT'S JUST," Papyrus sighed again, staring up at the ceiling as he forced out the words. "IS HAVING A PAPYRUS IN THE TIMELINE, ANY PAPYRUS, SO IMPORTANT THAT THE UNIVERSE PUSHED YOU INTO THAT SITUATION?"

"ok, no. you can't blame yourself for something that happened before you were born. before you were even conceived! you didn't flirt with the closest thing you had to a father figure. you didn't flirt back with a child one fourth your age. you didn't cart homeless children off to that lab and you didn't abandon a baby to die alone on the streets. a lot of bad decisions led to your birth, but you didn't make a single one of them."

"SOMETHING CAN BE YOUR FAULT WITHOUT IT BEING A CHOICE."

"nothing that happened before you were born can ever be **your** fault! if ya wanna blame someone then blame yer grandparents. or asgore, either one works." Sans glared up at Papyrus, who was giving him an incredulous stare. "look, the low lv monsters weren't ever gonna let something like what _he_ did slide like in the high lv timelines, no matter if they were right or left handed, so the only one so far that could've had a situation like ours was black an' slim's. so far as i can tell the difference is black was given up to be a ward of the crown, but in our timeline that'd just get ya dragged before asgore. if yer lucky he'd just throw ya in jail and ferget ya were down there, **if ya were lucky**. an' hey, didja know _he_ and arial weren't married yet when that happened? so somethin' about havin' me around made them stick 'round, something that didn't happen in our timeline."

"BUT WHY DID THE UNIVERSE PICK YOU TO BE MY MOTHER? WHY DID I HAVE TO BE BORN SO BADLY?"

"oh my fuck! i told you this before and i'm saying it again: i'm glad you were born! you saved my life just by existing. if i didn't have to be responsible for you when _he_ yeeted himself out of existence i'd have done something stupid like starve to death or poison myself eating garbage or got caught by the guards again. and i loved you from the very beginning, for the first time in my whole life i was happy, really happy. i'm glad you were born and if i had to do it all over again i'd do whatever i had to to make sure you were born again, okay? i don't know what i'd do without you. and the other sanses feel the same way, so if the universe needed a papyrus in our timeline so badly it's only because every sans needs his papyrus. i need my papyrus."

Papyrus sucked in a deep breath, fighting off the burn at the corners of his eye sockets. Frisk would be home soon, he didn't want them to see him crying and worry.

"ya good? we done freakin' out over could'ves and should'ves and other shit we can't change 'cause it's over and done with?"

"YES, I'M OKAY." And he was, for the most part. He could work through any lingering insecurities later. "SO LAY DOWN ALREADY, YOU'LL WANT TO BE WELL RESTED BEFORE GOING TO PICK UP FRISK FROM THEIR ALTERNATE PARTY."

"ya sure? not got any other issues yer freakin' out about?"

"YES, I'M SURE. I PROMISE NOT TO HAVE ANY MORE EXISTENTIAL CRISES UNTIL AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR NAP."

"i'll hold ya to that." Sans winked as he slouched, chin pressed to his clavicles as he slumped down. His eyes quickly drifted shut.

Papyrus picked up first one foot, pulled off Sans's untied shoe, then did the same for the other. He settled Sans's feet in his lap, causing the other to lay out across the couch or attempt to sleep torqued at a horrible angle. Papyrus may not be "freaking out" any more, but he still had a lot to think about, watching over Sans's rest as he did so was as good a place as any for it. The house grew still, only the sound of Sans's breathing and a light breeze blowing flurries against the window broke the quiet.

"YOU KNOW," Papyrus said contemplatively, "IF WE ACT LIKE IT'S COMMON KNOWLEDGE YOU'RE MY MOTHER ALL THE OTHER ALTERNATE SNOWDIN RESIDENTS WON'T KNOW ANY BETTER, AND WILL WONDER IF THE OTHER PAPYRUSES ARE THE OTHER SANSES' SONS TOO."

Sans's eye sockets flew open as he laughed harshly, "oh my god! yer right!"

* * *

Hoo Nelly, are there ever a lot of notes! First of all, for those who may have been confused about the nicknames I chose, the various skeletons in the order their Barriers broke:

UT: Comic and Sunny  
US: Blue and Stretch  
OT: Cosmic and Astro  
SF: Black and Slim  
UF: Red and Edge

I will admit I added in the OT boys a little last minute because I was inspired by Kamari33's flower shop AU. Their height was definitely stolen from Kamari, and only the fact that they can manipulate gravity kept them from suffering similar physical weakness. Both brothers are slowly working down how much they ignore gravity, but I don't blame Cosmic for completely ignoring it while sleeping. So far as I know it's my own HC to have their barrier instead be a portal to a comet (and also my own HC for it to be a comet and not a moon. A moon implies a convenient planet for them to be orbiting around).

I've also never written for the Swell boys before (the Swaps either, but I've at least planned out my own HCs for that AU) so I was kind of floundering a bit. They kinda grew as I went (even if Red was the only Sans with dialogue). There are so many of my own HCs that went into this, could you feel all the world building I kept putting in?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll do anything else with this multiversal AU, I think there's a lot of potential for interesting concepts and fun stories. We'll see.


	5. Finding Family

Going back in time for this one, so all those various preg* tags apply

* * *

Sans choked and sputtered as he desperately struggled with the one window in his tiny studio apartment, he finally managed to force the latch to unlock and throw the window open. Smoke billowed out around him and into the musty New Home air. He coughed and impatiently waved the spatula he was still holding in a vain attempt to help air out the apartment. There was a hiss and violent sizzle from the stove. Sans swore and turned back to it, quickly turning off the burner and moving the overflowing pot off it, he moved it right next to the pan still emitting a now thin stream of smoke from the black and pink lump sitting in its middle.

"food's fucking done," Sans grumbled to himself as he attempted to scrape the burnt mess onto a plate. "pan seared salmon," he sneered, "so easy, the perfect recipe for a beginner cook. bah!" With a particularly vicious shove, he managed to get the spatula under the… well Sans wasn't quite sure exactly what kind of fish it was. Whatever was most common in Waterfall, probably not actually salmon. Not that it should matter, right? Fish was fish, it should all cook the same. So the fish was scraped onto his plate, the pan and spatula dumped into the sink to be dealt with later. Then he turned his attention to his steamed vegetables. Boiled vegetables? He wasn't sure what a colander was but he was sure he didn't have one. Hot water was hot water, it really shouldn't make that much of a difference, right? He fished the veggies out and plopped them onto his plate. That done he grabbed a fork and waddled over to his bed.

It was the only furniture he had so far, if you didn't count the counters and cupboards that were built into the kitchen. What few clothes he'd gotten himself so far were scattered on the floor around the bed and one of the room's corners. He'd have to go get himself a dresser or wardrobe or something, but that could wait for a later day. Plate balanced on what little lap he had left, the kid already _kicking_ up a fuss over him sitting, Sans poked at his meal warily. The veggies were limp and soggy, some of the water draining off them to puddle around the fish. Okay, so maybe his first attempt at cooking was kind of a disaster, but he wasn't going to waste food. He used his fork to cut off a piece of fish and held it up to get a better look at it. The inside wasn't burnt, maybe he could scrape off the burned bits?

There was a knock at Sans's door.

He groaned and let his fork fall back on the plate. Ugh! What now? Probably a nosy neighbor, he did not want to deal with that right now. Do you have any idea how hard it was for him to stand up once he'd sat down? No thanks, he's trapped on this bed save for an emergency.

The knock came again.

A nosy, persistent neighbor, it seemed. Sans groaned again, "coming, coming. keep your shirt on." He set the plate to the side, then set about rocking himself up onto his feet. The kid settled down once he was upright, though he'd learned over the last few days that it wouldn't last if he didn't start moving soon. The kid seemed to enjoy the movement, which wouldn't be a problem if standing for more than five minutes at a time didn't cause his back, hips, knees, and feet to ache like a bitch.

There was another knock on Sans's door.

"i said i was coming, holy fuck." He waddled the short distance to the door and leaned up as best he could to see out the peep hole. There was a fish standing at the door, something in their hands. It was hard to tell with how the peep hole distorted the view, but they seemed a little taller than him. And quite old, the blue of their scales dull and grayish. Most of the residents of this particular complex were old. "what do you want?" Sans hollered through the door.

The neighbor held up something rectangular in their hands, "I have a welcome gift for you."

Sans scoffed, "a welcome gift?" Who'd ever heard of such a thing? Who could even think up such a thing? Ridiculous! But Sans must be part cat because he found himself opening the door to peek out cautiously anyway. "what is it?"

"Just a bit of casserole, chicken and rice." The neighbor, definitely a little taller than Sans, even hunched over, with white hair and gray eating at the tips of their fins, held up the rectangular dish in their hands, holding it practically under Sans's nasal aperture. A delicious scent wafted up from it, one that had the kid doing somersaults. Sans grimaced and rubbed at his belly in an attempt to calm them down. The neighbor just smiled at that, showing off a couple missing teeth. "How about you invite me in and we both have some?"

Sans looked back into his cramped but empty apartment, the scent of burnt fish making his orbits burn. He looked back to find the neighbor leaning over to look inside. "i don't have any furniture," he said flatly, pulling the door close to his body.

"That's alright, I have a table and a couple chairs in my apartment. Come along, can't let the little one go hungry." The neighbor turned and started shuffling down the hallway.

Sans hesitated, weighing the pros and cons of following this neighbor. The debate was thrown out the window when there was a sharp kick to his spine. He quickly stepped into the hall and locked the door behind him, then waddled after the neighbor, just one door down from him. Inside their apartment was just as tiny as his, but crammed full to bursting with furniture. A bed, a short sofa, a padded rocking chair (all overstuffed, worn, and in big flower prints), a coffee table covered in magazines and various scissors, a dresser, a dinner table, and three wooden chairs, each with its own overstuffed cushion, tucked under the table all stuffed into the same small space. The neighbor led Sans over to the table where they set the casserole down, then started bustling about the kitchen.

Sans sat heavily at the table to watch them warily, ready to do whatever weird teleporting magic he could somehow do in case they turned out to be hostile. They returned with some silverware and plates, after placing them on the table they bustled about again, returning with a pair of glasses full of some kind of dark red liquid. They served themself and Sans each a square of casserole, then sat down themself. There was a brief, awkward pause as they both looked at each other before the neighbor picked up their fork and took their first bite. Sans quickly followed suit.

"My name's Naiad," the neighbor said after a couple bites.

"sans," he replied around a mouthful of food. Once it absorbed he added, "this's really good."

"Thank you, I can teach you the recipe if you like."

Sans felt his face flush, Naiad's window was open and he could still smell a few whiffs of fishy smoke. "i uh… yeah. that'd be… yeah."

Naiad just smiled and took another bite. Sans went back to shoveling the food into his mouth, it really was good. He tensed up when Naiad opened her mouth to speak again, but relaxed when all she did was talk about the ingredients that went into the casserole.

"The next time I make something I'll come fetch you first and we can cook together."

"sure," Sans found himself agreeing to without really thinking.

Naiad smiled at his response, then gathered up the empty dishes and took a step to the sink. Sans felt a quick stab of panic, unsure where it came from or why. He simply sat there, trying to keep his breathing even and hoping the random panic would go away. Once Naiad finished whatever she was doing with the dishes, washing them probably, that's what people did with dirty dishes, right? Washed them? She turned back to Sans with another smile. "How're you feeling now?"

"okay i guess?" Sans sat there, unsure what to do next. Should he just leave now? Is that what people did? Just eat someone's food then leave?

"How about we move this to the living room, the chairs there are more comfortable."

"uh… okay."

Naiad held a hand out, Sans took it and let her help him heave himself to his feet. "Here, try this rocking chair." She helped him settle into it, once he was slowly rocking himself she sat on the short sofa and started talking again. "I usually like to keep busy now that I'm retired, there's lots of hobbies floating around that you can pick up. And a lot of it is so useful! Not that I've picked up any of the useful hobbies." Naiad chuckled to herself, then started talking about the magazines and scissors on the coffee table before going off onto a tangent about her BINGO buddies. Then one of the questions Sans had been dreading came up. "So, are you living alone?"

Sans tensed up, his rocking coming to an abrupt halt that had the kid kicking in protest. "yeah. heh, if you don't count this little guy." He couldn't help the way his face softened as he ran a hand over his round belly.

"It's hard, isn't it?"

Sans couldn't help nodding, "yeah, it is."

Naiad nodded along, then her eyes drifted down to the coffee table and she seemed to start. "Oh yes, let me show you where I keep my folding papers and other supplies. You have to be careful about space in a place like this, I was lucky I already had such a useful table." She scooted forward and reached down to pull out a drawer under the table and pull out a brightly colored piece of paper with a faint pattern on it.

Sans started rocking gently again, relaxing a bit when that one question didn't turn into more. Maybe she would ask more later, she probably would if he did end up coming over here for cooking lessons. But she wasn't right now, and Sans found himself grateful for it. Sitting there, having just eaten, listening to Naia go on about Betsy's shameful cheating and how she didn't like Naiad's little folded creations, Sans found himself smiling. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.


	6. Child Support

"i see _him _sometimes," Sans admitted quietly one evening. It had been several months since Sans returned from the hospital, well after life had settled back into their own version of normal. Sans had told Grillby the truth, with Papyrus's blessing of course. Everyone else could figure it out on their own or just stay ignorant, it wasn't their business anyway. The questions had slowed down, especially after that traumatic meeting with Papyrus's grandparents, thus it was strange for Sans to bring up _him_ randomly in the middle of a peaceful evening hanging out together.

Papyrus picked up the remote and turned off the TV, but didn't take his eyes off it. He didn't say anything, just waited for Sans to continue.

"mostly it's durin' shortcuts, i think i was seein' _him_ fer a while but didn't notice or couldn't remember until i got those impossible memories back."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN DURING SHORTCUTS?"

"ya know how fer a moment it's like yer blind? so a shortcut is like… it's like openin' a door to nothing and then openin' a new door from that nothing to wherever yer headed, only it's so fast ya only spend a second in that nothing. but there's something else there, in that nothing. an' sometimes i think i see him in the shadows, just out the corner of my eye. out here in the real world. you ever seen anything like that?"

Papyrus shook his head.

"'course i'm the only one he's hauntin'." Sans sighed and slumped into the couch.

Papyrus reached over and pulled Sans close so he was leaning against his side. "IS THAT HOW YOU KNEW SO EMPHATICALLY HE'S NOT DEAD?"

"yeah, sorry for not sayin' it earlier. i wasn't sure how you'd take it and uh… it's just… there's nothing we can do 'bout it?"

"I SUPPOSE THERE ISN'T. THAT'S ALL HE DOES, JUST APPEAR BRIEFLY? HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING?"

"he doesn't do anything i can see, no."

"SANS."

"well, sometimes stuff happens, like when i was first figurin' shortcuts out without my memories i uh… i got stuck in the nothing sometimes, but like i said i don't think i could see him back then. but every time i got stuck i managed to get out."

"YOU THINK HE… WHAT? PUSHED YOU OUT OF THE NOTHING?"

Sans shrugged, "maybe. i ain't been brave enough to go back there on purpose an' see."

"GOOD, DON'T."

"an' the phone with the money on it… i still have it. it still works, it still had money on it. i ain't touched that gold since i first got a job, but it it's still there."

Papyrus snorted, "SO HE PAYS CHILD SUPPORT."

"it's just… it feels like i get lucky sometimes an' i can't help wonderin' if he's tryin' to take care of us."

"GOOD FUCKING FOR HIM! I DON'T CARE, IT DOESN'T MAKE WHAT HE DID RIGHT, WE'RE STILL BETTER OFF WITHOUT HIM."

"yeah, yer right." Sans sighed heavily and cuddled deeper into Papyrus's side. "it's so much simpler fer ya, _he_ did wrong and ya hate him. don't have all these dumb leftover feelings from knowin' _him_ back then. i'm kinda jealous."

"WELL THEN JUST HATE HIM."

Sans shook his head, "can't, don't really want to either. an' maybe ya shouldn't hate _him_ quite so much, s'bad fer ya. plus _he_ don't deserve all that attention, ya know?"

"I'M CATCHING UP FOR AN ENTIRE CHILDHOOD OF NOT HATING HIM ENOUGH, WHEN THAT'S DONE I'LL LET IT GO." Papyrus nodded like he had the power to make that decision.

"sure, makes sense. just don't let it go on too long, and don't let it br yer motivation for everything neither."

"_HE_ WASN'T MY MOTIVATION FOR JOINING THE ROYAL GUARD OR WATCHING METTATON OR LEARNING TO TAKE CARE OF THE HOUSE, AND _HE_ ISN'T NOW EITHER."

Sans laughed, "good."

A moment of silence fell between them, Papyrus considered turning the TV back on. "HEY SANS, NEXT TIME YOU SEE _HIM_ GIVE _HIM_ A GOOD PUNCH FOR ME."

Sans barked out a surprised laugh, "nah, don't think i will. wouldn't want to tempt fate."

"VERY WELL, I'LL SIMPLY HAVE TO DO IT MYSELF IF I EVER FIND _HIM_."

"you do that, ya crazy kid." Sans's laughter faded to gentle chuckles, "my crazy kid."

"I WONDER WHERE I GET IT FROM." Papyrus did pick up the remote then and turned the TV back on, just in time for Mettaton to reveal that the killer was in fact himself.

"can't have been me, i ain't got a lick of crazy in me."

"SHUSH, YOU'RE INTERRUPTING THE CHAINSAWS."


End file.
